The Assateague Naturalist

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On the Beach, Sept. 1, 1999
On the beach Sept.1, 1999

Assateague Map
Map © 1999 Assateague.com

North Parking Area, Sept. 1, 1999
Sept. 1st, overwash flows toward Swan Cove
The north parking area covered with sand as water flows over it toward Swan Cove. Looking south toward the bathhouse and west toward Swan Cove, Sept. 1, 1999.

Looking south from the north parking area
A portion of the parking area north of the bath house. The dune near the bathhouse remained in place (Sept. 2, 1999). The north end of the dune can be seen to the left.

Swan Cove, Sept. 2nd
Swan Cove along the main road (facing lighthouse) on Sept. 2, 1999. The cove had been nearly empty a week before.

 Hurricane Dennis sent a large surf to Assateague Beach as early as Friday, August 27th, 1999. After approaching and battering the Outer Banks of North Carolina on August 30th, the hurricane backtracked, weakened, and stalled a little over 100 miles off the coast. By Tuesday evening (August 31st) Dennis was downgraded to a tropical storm. On Saturday (Sept. 4th) tropical storm Dennis finally moved ashore on the Outer Banks.

The north parking area, protected by only a small dune, was overwashed early in the week as were areas to the south of the bath house. (The Park Service is allowing natural forces to shape the beach to the north of the traffic circle - an area that includes the north parking lot.) The dune protecting the bath house area remained in place.

The overwash sent water into Swan Cove which had been nearly empty of water prior to August 27th.

On Thursday, Sept. 2nd, the beach parking areas were still closed because of the possibility of further wave action. But by Saturday, the Park Service had opened the beach road and parking areas to the south of the traffic circle and had begun plowing sand out of the parking lot to the north of the circle.

For a few days, Chincoteague experienced steady winds of 25-35 mph with gusts up to about 50 mph (Aug. 30 - Sept. 1st) with occassional, short power outages on various parts of the island.